Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka reach Women’s Doubles final – French Open 2011
Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka continued their heroics at the 2011 French Open with a stunning 6-3, 6-3 victory over third seeded team Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova in the semi-final.
The pair will take on number seven seeds Indian Sania Mirza and Russian Elena Vesnina in the final. Mirza/Vesnina defeated fourth seeded Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond of United States 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 to book a final place at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament.
The un-seeded team of Hlavackova and Hradecka are clearly the surprising finalists at Roland Garros. They are the second un-seeded team to make a final appearance at French Open in the last 30 years Francesca Schiavone and Casey Dellacqua stood runner up at 2008 edition of the tournament.
Having upset the second seeds Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik and eighth seeded team of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova earlier in the tournament, the Czech pair looked full of confidence as the match started. With an impressive 70 percent first serve conversion, they were able to take control of rallies and made the opposition run for their money. Some excellent team work combined with skilful clay court play, allowed the pair to create a number of break chances in the opening set. Converting one of them, they took a reasonable game score lead in the set. The pair held on to their serve games quite comfortably to pocket the opener 6-3.
The second set also followed quite a similar pattern with Czech team dictating terms in almost all aspects of the game. Although their first serve conversion was a bit on the lower side, they were able to make up for that by staying firm in the rallies and managed to secure 56 per cent of the points while at the receiving end.
King/Shvedova had their chances but were failed to convert them as she they struggled to handle the pressure. Despite reaching 74 percent first serve conversion in the second set; they managed to win only 40 per cent of the points on their serve, which certainly played a big part in deciding the outcome of the match.
The Czech team converted a long rally in their favour to set up a couple of match points and then converted the very first one to make history in Paris. Considering their current form and combination, Hlavackova and Hradecka would be the favourite in their finals clash against Mirza/Vesnina. However, to yield similar results they must look for consistency. They will be hoping to continue their incredible run and lift their first Grand Slam doubles trophy.
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